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Writer vs. Fact-Checker: This Time, It’s Personal

By The Staff February 22, 2012 2:42 pmFebruary 22, 2012 2:42 pm

In this week’s Riff, Gideon Lewis-Kraus writes about John D’Agata and the practice of fudging facts in the name of Art. D’Agata, a professor of nonfiction at the University of Iowa, and Jim Fingal, a former fact-checker, have released a book, ‘‘The Lifespan of a Fact,’’ published by W. W. Norton & Company, which chronicles their long and sometimes personal battle over the factualness of an essay D’Agata wrote for The Believer magazine. Here is an adaption from the book:

The sentence in question: ‘‘On the day that Levi Presley died, five others died from two types of cancer, four from heart attacks, three because of strokes. It was a day of two suicides by gunshot as well. The day of yet another suicide from hanging.’’

The dispute:

Jim Fingal, fact-checker: According to the coroner’s office, there were two heart attacks that day that they investigated. But there were also five cardiorespiratory arrests and a myocardial infarction that weren’t investigated. So, John, should we change this ‘‘four heart attacks’’ to ‘‘eight’’?

John D’Agata, writer: I like the effect of these numbers scaling down in the sentence from five to four to three, etc.

Fingal: But that would be intentionally inaccurate.

D’Agata: Probably, yeah.

Fingal: Aren’t you worried about your credibility?

D’Agata: Not really, Jim. I’m not running for public office. I’m trying to write something that’s interesting to read.

Fingal: But what’s the point if the reader stops trusting you?

D’Agata: The readers who care about the difference between ‘‘four’’ and ‘‘eight’’ might stop trusting me. But the readers who care about the metaphorical effect that the accumulation of these sentences achieve will probably forgive me.

Fingal: I guess I’m confused: what exactly are the benefits of using ‘‘four’’ versus ‘‘eight’’ in this sentence?

Bruce Grierson wrote this week’s cover story about Ellen Langer, a Harvard psychologist who has conducted experiments that involve manipulating environments to turn back subjects’ perceptions of their own age.Read more…